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Describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by "tools of the mind", from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, the author makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic, a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence.Read more...

The watchdog and the thief --
Hal and me --
The vital paths --
A digression on what the brain thinks about when it thinks about itself --
Tools of the mind --
The deepening page --
A digression on Lee De Forest and his amazing audion --
A medium of the most general nature --
The very image of a book --
The juggler's brain --
A digression on the buoyancy of IQ scores --
The church of Google --
Search, memory --
A digression on the writing of this book --
A thing like me --
Human elements.

Responsibility:

Nicolas Carr.

Abstract:

Describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by "tools of the mind", from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, the author makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic, a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence.